'An Artist of the Floating World' (1986) is a historical novel by Kazuo Ishiguro set in Japan post WWII. The narrative belongs to Masuji Ono, an aging painter who -- in the buildup to WWII -- broke away from his teacher to pursue nationalistic propagandistic art. Much like the McCarthy era in America's 1950s, where America's artists were regularly rounded up and jailed as Communists, Ono took an active role in Japan's ideological witch hunt.

The timely nature of Walker's creative impulse for 'An Artist of the Floating World' is surely the rise of nationalism worldwide and specifically the rise of Donald Trump and his embrace of nationalistic, alt-right, ideological purity in America. ~ Anne

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